Water Cooler

By going to Facebook Wednesday to announce his retirement from baseball following the upcoming season, the Yankee shortstop put on a clinic on how to use social media to strike the right tone for sensitive subjects.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? And that includes social channels. Twitter is experimenting with yet another profile redesign, channeling Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest’s image-heavy formats in a yet-to-be-released update. Mashable reports that… Continued

Following his fourth-place finish in the halfpipe final at the Winter Olympics Tuesday, Shaun White is already making noises to focus more on his music career and less on snowboarding. But if the music thing doesn’t work out, White could also try his hand at branding. He certainly has a knack for how to manage his own brand.

Dumb Starbucks was among the top trending stories of the last 24 hours, for sure. And while it has come and gone already, as Los Angeles County health inspectors shut the store down on Monday for operating without a valid permit, it deserves recognition from the communications perspective for several reasons.

Foot, meet mouth. Tim Armstrong, the CEO of AOL, has done it again. He’s apologized for comments that showed a remarkable lack of empathy for AOL employees. He’s also done PR pros a favor when it comes to convincing C-level executives on why it’s important that they show some compassion for their employees.